Reconstructionist Judaism

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Reconstructionism was developed by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) and his son-in-law, Rabbi Ira Eisenstein (1906–2001), over a period of time from the late 1920s to the 1940s. After being rejected by Orthodox rabbis for his focus on issues in the community and the sociopolitical environment, Kaplan and a group of followers founded the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ) in 1922. Its goal was to give rabbis the opportunity to form new outlooks on Judaism in a more progressive manner. Kaplan was the leader of the SAJ until Eisenstein succeeded him in 1945. In 1935, Kaplan published his book, Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American Jewish Life. It was this book that Kaplan claimed was the beginning of the Reconstructionist movement. Judaism as a Civilization suggested that historical Judaism be given a "revaluation... in terms of present-day thought."{{sfn|Raphael|1984|pp=[https://archive.org/details/profilesinameric00raph/page/180 180–181]}} Reconstructionism was able to spread with several other forms of literature—most notably, the New Haggadah (1941), which for the first time blended Kaplan's ideologies in Jewish ceremonial literature.

Although Kaplan did not want Reconstructionism to branch into another Jewish denomination, it became apparent that such an outcome was inevitable. At the Montreal conference in 1967, Reconstructionist leaders called for a rabbinical school in which rabbis could be ordained under the Reconstructionist ideology and lead Reconstructionist congregations.{{Cite journal |last=Musher |first=Deborah Ann |date=1998 |title=Reconstructionist Judaism in the Mind of Mordecai Kaplan: The Transformation from a Philosophy into a Religious Denomination |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23886435 |journal=American Jewish History |volume=86 |issue=4 |pages=397–417 |jstor=23886435 |issn=0164-0178}} By the fall of 1968, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College was opened in Philadelphia. Along with the establishment of the college, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association formed, which gave rabbis a strong network in the religious leadership of Reconstructionism.{{sfn|Raphael|1984|pp=[https://archive.org/details/profilesinameric00raph/page/192 192–193]}} The founding of these institutions were great strides in it becoming the fourth movement in North American Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform being the other three).

Reconstructionist Judaism is the first major movement of Judaism to originate in North America; the second is the Humanistic Judaism movement founded in 1963 by Rabbi Sherwin Wine.

Reconstructionist theology is a variant of the naturalism of John Dewey, which combined atheistic beliefs with religious terminology in order to construct a religiously satisfying philosophy for those who had lost faith in traditional religion.{{cn|date=May 2025}} [See id. at 385; but see Caplan at p. 23, fn.62 ("The majority of Kaplan's views ... were formulated before he read Dewey or [William] James.")]

Mordecai Kaplan argued that contemporary Jews can no longer maintain many traditional theological claims or sociocultural practices of Judaism due to advances in philosophy, science, and history.{{Cite web |last=Sachar |first=Abram |date=August 5, 1934 |title=Dr. Kaplan Reinterprets Judaism As a Civilization in His 'guide' |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/dr-kaplan-reinterprets-judaism-as-a-civilization-in-his-guide |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}} Kaplan affirmed a wholly non-anthropomorphic God, a position articulated by prominent medieval Jewish thinkers like Maimonides and in agreement with the rest of Rabbinic Judaism. All anthropomorphic descriptions of God, he argued, are understood to be metaphorical.{{Cite book |last=Scult |first=Mel |title=The radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-253-01711-6 |location=Bloomington |pages=71–73 |oclc=907086625}}

Kaplan's theology went further to claim that God is neither a personal god nor a conscious one; God cannot relate to or communicate with humanity in any way.{{Cite web |last=Kaufman |first=William |date=1991 |title=Mordecai M. Kaplan and Process Theology: Metaphysical and Pragmatic Perspectives |url=https://www.religion-online.org/article/mordecai-m-kaplan-and-process-theology-metaphysical-and-pragmatic-perspectives/ |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=religion-online.org |language=en-US}} Kaplan's theology defines God as the "sum of all natural processes that allow people to become self-fulfilled"—a religious and spiritual naturalism.{{sfn|Kaplan|1994|p=}}

{{quote|To believe in God means to accept life on the assumption that it harbors conditions in the outer world and drives in the human spirit which together impel man to transcend himself. To believe in God means to take for granted that it is man's destiny to rise above the brute and to eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation from human society. In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.Sonsino, Rifat. The Many Faces of God: A Reader of Modern Jewish Theologies. 2004, page 22–23}}

Most "classical" Reconstructionist Jews (i.e., those agreeing with Kaplan) reject traditional forms of theism, though this is by no means universal.{{Cite journal |last=Fuchs |first=Nancy |date=2006 |title=Seventy Years After Judaism as a Civilization: Mordecai Kaplan's Theology and the Reconstructionist Movement |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/jewish_social_studies/v012/12.2fuchs.html |journal=Jewish Social Studies |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=127–142 |doi=10.1353/jss.2006.0014 |issn=1527-2028|url-access=subscription }} Many Reconstructionist Jews are deists, but the movement also includes Jews who hold Kabbalistic, pantheistic, personal, and/or panentheistic views of God.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/subdivisions/reconstructionist_1.shtml|title=BBC - Religions - Judaism: Reconstructionist Judaism|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-11-07}} As he explicitly stated, Kaplan's theology does not represent the only Reconstructionist understanding of theology; theology is not the cornerstone of the Reconstructionist movement. Much more central is the idea that Judaism is a civilization and that the Jewish people must take an active role in ensuring its future by participating in its ongoing evolution.

Consequently, a strain of distinctly non-Kaplanian Reconstructionism exists.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}} In this view, Kaplan's assertions concerning Jewish belief and practice are largely rejected while his principle of Judaism being an "evolving religious civilization" is sustained. The basis for this approach is that Kaplan spoke for his generation; he also wrote that every generation would need to define itself and its civilization for itself.{{cn|date=April 2025}} In the thinking of these Reconstructionists, what Kaplan said concerning Jewish belief and practice is inapplicable to the generations of Reconstructionism since his death. As such, non-Kaplanian Reconstructionist Judaism could include belief in a personal God, endorsement of the concept of Jews as the chosen people, a belief in some form of resurrection and/or an afterlife, and adherence to some version of binding Halakha. In the latter context, novel interpretations of domains of Halakha like Kashrut have emerged, such as Eco-Kashrut.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

Reconstructionist Judaism holds that the traditional halakhic system is incapable of producing a code of conduct that is meaningful for, and acceptable to, the vast majority of contemporary Jews, and thus must be reinterpreted in each new time period. Unlike classical Reform Judaism, Reconstructionism holds that a person's default position should be to incorporate Jewish laws and tradition into their lives, unless they have a specific reason to do otherwise. However some Reconstructionists believe that halakha is neither normative, nor binding, but are general guidelines.

Reconstructionism promotes many traditional Jewish practices. Thus, the commandments have been replaced with "folkways", non-binding customs that can be democratically accepted or rejected by the congregations. Folkways that are promoted include keeping Hebrew in the prayer service, studying Torah, daily prayer, wearing kippot (yarmulkes), tallitot and tefillin during prayer, and observance of the Jewish holidays.

Reconstructionists may use distinct prayer books, such as the Kol haneshamah Hebrew/English Reconstructionist prayer book. Marc Shapiro called attention to the Reconstructionist Kol haneshamah taking liberties with the text, sometimes with an English translation "so blatantly inaccurate that we have no choice but to regard it as a conscious alteration."{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Marc B. |title=Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites its History |publisher=Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization |isbn=9781904113607 |page=53|year=2015}} In ft. 225 Shapiro provides an example from Kol haneshamah p. 54 which renders Psalms 147:20 as universalist statements as opposed to featuring God's unique connection specifically with the Jews.

In practice, Kaplan's books, especially The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion and Judaism as a Civilization are de facto statements of principles. In 1986, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) and the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot (FRCH) passed the official "Platform on Reconstructionism". It is not a mandatory statement of principles, but rather a consensus of current beliefs.See the FRCH Newsletter, Sept. 1986, pages D, E. Major points of the platform state that:

{{Blockquote|Judaism is the result of natural human development. There is no such thing as divine intervention; Judaism is an evolving religious civilization; Zionism and aliyah (immigration to Israel) are encouraged; Reconstructionist Judaism is based on a democratic community where the laity can make decisions, not just rabbis; The Torah was not inspired by God; it only comes from the social and historical development of Jewish people; The classical view of God is rejected. God is redefined as the sum of natural powers or processes that allows mankind to gain self-fulfillment and moral improvement; The idea that God chose the Jewish people for any purpose, in any way, is "morally untenable", because anyone who has such beliefs "implies the superiority of the elect community and the rejection of others."}}

Most Reconstructionists do not believe in revelation (the idea that God reveals his will to human beings). This is dismissed as supernaturalism. Kaplan posits that revelation "consists in disengaging from the traditional context those elements in it which answer permanent postulates of human nature, and in integrating them into our own ideology...the rest may be relegated to archaeology".{{sfn|Kaplan|1994|p=}}

Many writers have criticized the movement's most widely held theology, religious naturalism. David Ray Griffin and Louis Jacobs have objected to the redefinitions of the terms "revelation" and "God" as being intellectually dishonest, and as being a form of "conversion by definition"; in their critique, these redefinitions take non-theistic beliefs and attach theistic terms to them. Similar critiques have been put forth by Rabbis Neil Gillman,Sacred Fragments, p. 200 Milton Steinberg,Milton Steinberg: Portrait of a Rabbi by Simon Noveck, Ktav, 1978, p. 259–260M and Michael Samuels.The Lord Is My Shepherd: The Theology of a Caring God, 1996

Reconstructionist Judaism is egalitarian with respect to gender roles. All positions are open to all genders; they are open to lesbians, gay men, and transgender individuals as well.

Reconstructionist Judaism allows its rabbis to determine their own policy regarding officiating at intermarriages. Some congregations accept patrilineal as well as matrilineal descent, and children of one Jewish parent, of any gender, are considered Jewish by birth if raised as Jews. This contrasts with the traditional interpretations of Jewish law of both Rabbinical Judaism, in which a child is Jewish by birth if its mother was Jewish; and of Karaite Judaism, in which a child is Jewish by birth if its father was Jewish.

The role of non-Jews in Reconstructionist congregations is a matter of ongoing debate. Practices vary between synagogues. Most congregations strive to strike a balance between inclusivity and integrity of boundaries. The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) has issued a non-binding statement attempting to delineate the process by which congregations set policy on these issues, and sets forth sample recommendations. These issues are ultimately decided by local lay leadership.Can Halakha Live? by Rabbi Edward Feld, The Reconstructionist, Vol.59(2), Fall 1994, p. 64-72

In 2015 the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College voted to accept rabbinical students in interfaith relationships, making Reconstructionist Judaism the first type of Judaism to officially allow rabbis in relationships with non-Jewish partners.{{cite web|url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/75811/reconstructionists-give-green-light-to-intermarried-rabbinical-students|title=Reconstructionists give green light to intermarried rabbinical students|publisher=Jweekly|author=Lisa Hostein|date=October 1, 2015|access-date=17 March 2015}} In making the decision, the movement considered that "many younger progressive Jews, including many rabbis and rabbinical students, now perceive restrictions placed on those who are intermarried as reinforcing a tribalism that feels personally alienating and morally troubling in the 21st century."[http://forward.com/news/329163/7-reconstructionist-rabbis-quit-as-synagogues-debate-intermarried-rabbis/?attribution=home-hero-item-text-1 7 Reconstructionist Rabbis Quit as Synagogues Debate Intermarried Rabbis] The Forward, 8 January 2016 In April 2016 nineteen Reconstructionist rabbis announced the formation of Beit Kaplan: The Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood, originally to protest the decision to allow rabbis to have non-Jewish partners, but more recently to challenge the ordination and inclusion of non-Zionist rabbis. As of March 2025, Beit Kaplan had 80 members. [http://www.jta.org/2016/04/08/news-opinion/united-states/reconstructionist-offshoot-forms-over-intermarried-rabbis-bds Reconstructionist offshoot forms over intermarried rabbis, BDS] JTA, April 8, 2016

Although the Reconstructionist movement officially supports liberal Zionism, it also has a disproportionate amount of anti-Zionist members. Of the Jewish Voice for Peace rabbinical council, about 60 percent of their members were trained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.{{cite news |title=A Reconstructionist Reckoning |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/a-reconstructionist-reckoning |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=Jewish Currents |language=en}}

{{Progressive Judaism}}

Over 100 synagogues and havurot, mostly in the United States and Canada, were affiliated with the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. As of June 3, 2012, the Reconstructionist movement has been restructured. A joint institution consisting of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and the congregational organization is now the primary organization of the movement.[http://www.rrc.edu/node/1193 "Movement Restructuring FAQs"], Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, June 4, 2012{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/25852/Do_the_Jewish_Streams_Have_a_Future/ |title=Do the Jewish Streams Have a Future?|date=May 9, 2012|publisher=The Jewish Exponent| access-date=2012-06-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514172921/http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/25852/Do_the_Jewish_Streams_Have_a_Future/ |archive-date=2012-05-14 }}

The movement's new designation was first "Jewish Reconstructionist Communities," and in 2018 became [https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/ Reconstructing Judaism].{{cite web|url= https://www.jta.org/2018/01/30/news-opinion/united-states/reconstructionist-rabbinical-school-changes-name-to-reconstructing-judaism |title= Reconstructionist Rabbinical School Changes Name to Reconstructing Judaism|work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=2018-01-30}} Rabbi Deborah Waxman was inaugurated as the president of the RRC and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities on October 26, 2014.{{cite web|url= http://jewishexponent.com/community/2014/10/waxman-inaugurated-as-head-of-reconstructionist-rabbinical-college |title=Waxman Inaugurated as Head of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College |work=Jewish Exponent}} As the president of the RRC, she is believed to be the first woman and first lesbian to lead a Jewish congregational union, and the first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary; the RRC is both a congregational union and a seminary.{{cite web |url= http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/reconstructionists-pick-first-woman-lesbian-denominational-leader |title=Reconstructionists Pick First Woman, Lesbian As Denominational Leader - The Jewish Week |work=The Jewish Week |access-date=29 October 2014}}{{cite press release | title =RRC Announces New President Elect | location =Wyncote, PA (USA) | publisher = Reconstructionist Rabbinical College | date =2013-10-09 | url =http://www.rrc.edu/sites/default/files/ORPHAN_PDFs/RRC_WaxmanPresidentElect-ForPress3.pdf?hero=1615 | access-date = 2013-10-16}}

Waxman is a 1999 graduate of RRC.[http://forward.com/articles/185252/trailblazing-reconstructionist-deborah-waxman-reli/?p=all "Trailblazing Reconstructionist Deborah Waxman Relishes Challenges of Judaism"]. Forward.com. Retrieved 2013-10-12.[http://www.jewishexponent.com/change-of-top-leadership-at-recon-movement "Change of Top Leadership at Recon Movement"] Jewish Exponent. Retrieved 2013-10-30.

The RRC educates rabbis. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association is the professional organization of Reconstructionist rabbis. The Jewish Reconstructionist youth organization is named No'ar Hadash. Camp Havaya (formerly Camp JRF) in South Sterling, Pennsylvania, is the Reconstructionist movement's summer sleep away camp.{{Cite web|url=https://camphavaya.org/about-us/|title=About Us|website=Camp Havaya|access-date=2020-04-28}}

In April 2016, a new Reconstructionist rabbinical organization was formed: Beit Kaplan: The Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood.[https://www.beitkaplan.org/ Beit Kaplan website] Originally, Beit Kaplan was focused upon opposing both the decision to allow Reconstructionist rabbis to have non-Jewish partners,[http://www.jta.org/2016/04/08/news-opinion/united-states/reconstructionist-offshoot-forms-over-intermarried-rabbis-bds Reconstructionist offshoot forms over intermarried rabbis, BDS] JTA, April 8, 2016 and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement within Reconstructionist circles.[https://www.timesofisrael.com/reconstructionist-offshoot-forms-over-intermarried-rabbis-bds/ Reconstructionist offshoot forms over intermarried rabbis, BDS] The Times of Israel, April 9, 2016 Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Beit Kaplan's membership increased to 72 rabbis and rabbinical students in six countries. Presently, Beit Kaplan focuses on a "course correction" to reestablish the Reconstructionist movement's support for Israel and emphasis on the centrality of Jewish peoplehood.[https://www.beitkaplan.org/ Beit Kaplan's Mission] As of March 2025, Beit Kaplan had 80 members.

According to the 2010 US Religion Census, there were 41,436 members of Reconstructionist Judaism within 95 synagogues.{{Cite web |title=US Religion Census - Single-year report - all denominations - 2010 |url=https://www.usreligioncensus.org/report1.php?year=2010}}

As of 2020, the Pew Research Center estimated that Reconstructionist Judaism, along with Humanistic Judaism and other smaller denominations, constituted 4% of the United States's 7.5 million Jews.{{cite web |title=Jewish Americans in 2020 |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/ |access-date=30 May 2022 |ref=Jewish Americans in 2020}}

Originally an offshoot of Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionism retains warm relations with Reform Judaism; however, Orthodox Judaism considers Reconstructionism, and every other non-Orthodox denomination, to be in violation of proper observance of interpretation of Jewish law.{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=George|title=Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs and Rituals|year=2000|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York City, NY|isbn=0-671-03480-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/essentialjudaism00robi/page/232 232]|url=https://archive.org/details/essentialjudaism00robi/page/232}} The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is a member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, in which it gained an observer status in 1990.

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• List of Reconstructionist synagogues

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{{Reflist}}

;Primary sources

• {{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Mordecai M. |author-link=Mordecai Kaplan |year=2010 |orig-year=1934 |title=Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life |url={{Google books|id=mtGFZbJut0gC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |publisher=JPS Jewish Publication Society |place=Philadelphia, Pa |isbn=978-0-8276-1050-7}}
• {{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Mordecai Menahem |author-link=Mordecai Kaplan |title=The meaning of God in modern Jewish religion |year=1994 |orig-year=1937 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |place=Detroit, Mi |isbn=978-0-8143-3992-3 |oclc=868218906}}
• Platform on Reconstructionism, FRCH Newsletter, Sept. 1986, pp. D, E.
• Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach, Rebecca Alpert and Jacob J. Staub, The Reconstructionist Press, 1988.

;Secondary sources

• David Griffin's article in Jewish Theology and Process Thought, Ed. Sandra B. Lubarsky and David Ray Griffin, SUNY Press, 1996.
• Jacobs, Louis (1990). God, Torah, Israel: Traditionalism Without Fundamentalism. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press.
• {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Karesh |given=Sara E. |surname2=Hurvitz |given2=Mitchell M. |year=2005 |entry=Reconstructionist Judaism |title=Encyclopedia of Judaism |place=New York |publisher=Facts On File |series=Encyclopedia of World Religions. J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor |pages=416–418 |entry-url={{Google books|id=Z2cCZBDm8F8C|plainurl=y|page=416|keywords=|text=}} |url={{Google books|id=Z2cCZBDm8F8C|plainurl=y}} |isbn=0-8160-5457-6}}
• {{cite journal |surname=Liebman |given=Charles S. |date=1970 |authorlink=Charles Liebman |title=Reconstructionism in American Jewish Life |journal=American Jewish Year Book 1971 |format=PDF |pages=3–99 |url=http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=1925}}
• {{cite book |surname=Mittleman |given=Alan |author-link=Alan Mittleman |year=1993 |chapter=Modern Jewish Religious Movements |editor-surname=Wertheimer |editor-given=Jack |editor-link=Jack Wertheimer |title=The Modern Jewish Experience: A Reader's Guide |place=New York; London |publisher=NYU Press |pages=169–180 |chapter-url={{Google books|id=-G8TCgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=169|keywords=|text=}} |url={{Google books|id=-G8TCgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}} |isbn=0-8147-9261-8}}
• {{cite book |year=1975 |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=The Sectors of American Judaism: Reform, Orthodoxy, Conservatism, and Reconstructionism |series=Understanding American Judaism: Toward the Description of a Modern Religion, vol. 2 |place=New York |publisher=KTAV Publ. House |url={{Google books|id=LJvXAAAAMAAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=0870682792}}
• {{cite book |year=1993 |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=Conserving Conservative Judaism: Reconstructionist Judaism |series=Judaism in Cold War America, 1945–1990, vol. 7 |place=New York; London |publisher=Garland Publ. |isbn=9780815300786}}
• {{cite book |surname=Raphael |given=Marc Lee |year=1984 |title=Profiles in American Judaism: the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist traditions in historical perspective |publisher=Harper & Row |place=San Francisco, Ca |url=https://archive.org/details/profilesinameric00raph |url-access=registration |isbn=0-06066801-6}}
• {{cite book |surname=Rudavsky |given=David |title=Modern Jewish Religious Movements: A History of Emancipation and Abjustment |edition=3rd rev. |year=1979 |orig-year=1967 |place=New York |publisher=Behrman House |url=https://archive.org/details/modernjewishreli0000ruda/page/n8/mode/1up |url-access=registration |isbn=0-87441-286-2 |pages=347–366}}

• [https://jewishrecon.org/directory Directory of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot]
• [https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/ Reconstructing Judaism]
• [https://rrc.edu/ Reconstructionist Rabbinical College]
• [https://therra.org/ Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association]

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